December 20th, 2008 
thanate The place of rope and lines on board a sailing vessel now more than ever requires well researched decisions which will take many factors into account. It should be use the best quality for hard work.
Photo: yachtwillyou.co.uk
Rope is the term used only for raw material; once a section of rope is designated for a particular purpose on a vessel, it generally is called a line, as in outhaul line or dock line. A very thick line is considered a cable. Lines that are attached to sails to control their shapes are called sheets, as in mainsheet If a rope is made of wire, it maintains its rope name as in ‘wire rope’ halyard.
Lines that support masts are stationary and are collectively known as a vessel’s standing rigging, and individually as shrouds or stays. Moveable lines that control sails or other equipment are known collectively as a vessel’s running rigging. Lines that raise sails are called halyards while those that strike them are called downhauls or cunninghams. Lines that adjust the sails are called sheets. These are often referred to using the name of the sail they control. Sail trim may also be controlled with smaller lines attached to the forward section of a boom; such a line is called a vang, or a kicker in the United Kingdom. Lines used to tie a boat up when alongside are called docklines, docking cables or mooring warps.
Some lines are referred to as ropes. A bell rope, a bolt rope, a foot rope and a tiller rope. A rode is what keeps an anchor attached to the boat when the anchor is in use. It may be chain, rope, or a combination of the two.
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The term “rope” is not only used for raw material. Some lines called ropes are mentioned later in the article, but the list is incomplete. There are at least 10 or 11 standard lines that are called ropes aboard a sailing vessel (the Ashley Book of Knots says there have been as many as sixty). In addition to the bell rope, bolt rope, foot rope and tiller rope that were listed, there are: bucket rope, boat rope, breast rope, man rope, gift rope, wheel rope, heel rope, and more, somtimes written as one word. Also, seamen commonly referred to the ship’s rigging, especially the running rigging, collectively as “the ropes” as used in the expressions “Show him the ropes” (Train a green hand, new man aboard), who must “learn the ropes” – not only their names and functions, but precisely where they’re belayed; so as to be able to find them quickly, especially in the dark.
“Outhaul,” e.g., “clew outhaul,” is used by itself, not with “line.” Adding “line” would be redundant.
To say a “very thick” line is considered a cable is imprecise and incomplete. A three-stranded plain-laid or so-called “hawser-laid” line that is more than 5 inches in circumference is called a hawser. Hawser-laid line that is thick enough to be called a hawser is often used as a hawser, i.e., a tow line, e.g., for a barge. Twisting three or four hawser-laid lines together forms “cable-laid” line. Cable-laid line is so called because it was used in large sailing vessels as anchor cable or rode before the use of chain predominated.
A cunningham is used to haul taut the luff of a sail set from a mast, not to strike the sail. It may also serve as a reefing line. Head downhauls are used to strike sails, especially heads’ls or stays’ls; while tack downhauls (called tacks for gaff tops’ls) are used to hold or haul down a boom at the mast or the tack of a stays’l, jib or flying jib, which also serves to help haul the luff taut.
Vangs are lines controlling a gaff, led from the peak of a gaff to the next mast abaft the gaff or to the deck from the peak of the aftermost gaff. Boom vangs are typically tackles, led from the middle or somewhat forward of the middle of a boom to the foot of a deck-stepped mast (or near the partners if stepped belowdecks) and are used to hold the boom down while allowing it to move inboard or outboard as the sail is trimmed. In doing so, they help to flatten the sail, especially the leach, and also prevent the boom from lifting in a gybe.
Dock or docking lines and mooring lines are used to moor or “tie up” a vessel. Mooring warps or just warps are used to warp or move a vessel manually and with capstans, in port, e.g., shifting berths, without using her sails, engines or tugs, rather than to tie up, but “docking cable” is not commonly used (if ever).